TikTok recruits ex-Disney comms chief and former Obama officials in fight against US ban

As TikTok faces a potential ban in the United States (US), TikTok has roped in high-profile faces in its fight against lawmakers. These include the likes of an ex-Disney executive as well as former President Barack Obama's advisors, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)

TikTok recently hired Disney's former communications chief Zenia Mucha to help it navigate the political and legal side of things, according to WSJ. Media reports also add that TikTok hired David Plouffe who was instrumental in handling Obama's 2008 presidential campaign as well as Jim Messina who worked on Obama's re-election campaign in 2012. The three were reportedly hired to help prepare TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, before he was due to appear infront of US Congress two weeks ago. 

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Zenia Mucha brings with her incredible experience after spending 21 years in communications related roles in The Walt Disney Company. She started as senior vice president of communications at ABC Television Group before moving to senior vice president of corporate communications in 2022. In 2005, Mucha moved up to chief communications officer, a role he has held for just over 16 years. Prior to her stint at Disney, Mucha was the director of communications and senior policy advisor at the Office of the Governor in New York. She is also currently the president of ZM Strategies where she provides strategic and crisis communications consultancy to senior or C-suite level executives, corporations and entities, according to her LinkedIn page. 

David Plouffe on the other hand has years of experience as a strategist and running various campaigns. in 2014, Plouffe was senior vice president of policy and strategy at Uber. He then moved on to president of policy and Advocacy at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative where he led a team focused on supporting the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's mission to advance human potential and promote equal opportunity through great storytelling, smart policy engagement, and mobilization, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also worked as a campaign manager for the Obama campaign between 2007 and 2009 and later joined Obama as his senior advisor from 2011 to 2013. 

Alongside him is Jim Messina who was a campaign manager for Obama for America from 2011 to 2012. Prior to that, he was deputy chief of staff to President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2011. He was also national chief of staff for Obama's presidential campaign from 2007 to 2008, according to his LinkedIn profile. Currently, Messina is also the CEO of The Messina Group which is a full-service consulting firm that helps its clients with changemaker fights using the power of data-driven, political campaign strategies.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to TikTok for more information. 

The new hires come as TikTok faces a ban in the US largely due to national security concerns regarding ByteDance, which is TikTok's parent company that is based in China. The US fears that the Chinese government may be able to use TikTok to access US user data and the devices. It is also afraid that the Chinese government could use the social media app to spread propaganda to its US audience.

To solve this, federal officials demanded that ByteDance sell its stake in TikTok or risk a US ban of the app. More US senators are also backing a bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden new powers to ban TikTok on national security grounds, according to Reuters.

Since the news of concerns, fears have spread globally with more governments taking action to secure their data against Beijing-headquartered company ByteDance. So far, TikTok has already been banned or restricted from government-issued devices in Singapore, United States (US), Canada and Belgium.

The five-hour long hearing was an opportunity for Chew to appeal to US lawmakers to reassure them that TikTok will not be selling data to the Chinese government. In his statements, Chew assured Congress that Bytedance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government and it has not requested or accessed US user data.

Chew also defended the company’s US$1.5 billion Project Texas plan which involves ringfencing US data into a separate division of the company, Oracle, so that all data remains stored in the US. 

Chew added that TikTok is headquartered in Singapore and Los Angeles, and that it does not operate in China.

Furthermore, Chew defended TikTok's supposed negative effect on young users. He argued that as a father of two himself, much has been done to protect children on the app such as putting in age-appropriate settings and controls.

He added that users under 13 cannot post videos, comment or message others and that accounts of those under 16 are automatically set to private and that they cannot send direct messages or livestream till they are above 18.

There is also a new 60-minute default daily time limit for those under 18. Now, the world waits as lawmakers deliberate.

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